Rilo Kiley

Rilo Kiley: It's pop so good your mom will love it  if your mom has good taste in pop music. After sowing some wild musical oats with sweet, sorrowful acoustic country music and sunny indie pop, Jenny Lewis (vocals, keyboards), Blake Sennett (guitar, vocals), Pierre de Reeder (bass guitar, keyboards) and Jason Boesel (drums) have rejoined for another go-round as Rilo Kiley. Since the L.A.-based band burst onto the scene with 2004's scarily beautiful album More Adventurous, Lewis drifted away to release a disc of classic bittersweet country twang with Jenny Lewis & the Watson Twins (reaching into the spooky American hillbilly songbook) while Sennett dabbled with pretty, breezy indie rock in The Elected. Lewis and Sennett have reunited for RK's 2007 release, Under the Blacklight. Sounding like a happy-go-lucky Neko Case, Lewis' vocals sound stronger than ever, while Sennett's songwriting has grown with his time in The Elected. With perfect production and squeaky-clean songs, Rilo Kiley's sound is classic pop, tailor-made for radio airplay. Let's hope they get some with this impressive new album. But is it too pure and pretty and poppy and beautiful and perfect? Nope, it's the kind of music you want to take home to mom.